(04-18-2021 02:30 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(04-18-2021 01:26 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-16-2021 04:42 PM)jedclampett Wrote:  This will clarify why the AAC needs to add another good football school to achieve football power conference and "autonomy" status:

The P5 conferences have had an average of 3.6 football teams per conference in the Final AP Top 25 in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

In comparison, the AAC has only had an average of 2.33 football teams in the Final AP Top 25 over the past three seasons.

Moreover, three G5 conferences and the small group of FB independents had as many or more teams in the Final Top 25 than the AAC had in 2020.

Aresco wants the AAC out of the "G" group. That's nice, but it's easier to make the case that the AAC doesn't belong in the "G" group than to make the case it belongs in the "A/P" group. And that's the real issue.

What the AAC has done is establish itself as an overall "tweener" kind of football league. But, one that is closer to the other G5 than the P5. In the seven years of the CFP, the AAC has finished ahead of a single P5 conference one time, and by the smallest of margins. In contrast, the AAC has twice finished behind other G5 conferences, and by larger margins. And in reality, it's likely they finished second among G5 conferences in 2020 as well, as the Sun Belt seems to have had a better season, though with wonky computers due to poor datasets we'll never know for sure.

Aresco is pushing for all the right things, but he's been arguing for 8 years that we don't belong in the "G" group and nothing has come of it.

I think thats an excellent point. Its also one that should not be overlooked. The first step in moving toward P6 status is to break away from boat anchor G5 perception. In terms of perception---I think we are moving toward BYU "tweener" territory. Thats measurable progress. Also---I doubt the AAC finished second in 2020. That said, I wouldnt be surprised if the Sunbelt finishes ahead of the MW.

IIRC, the AAC finished first in the official 2020 CFP G5 conference rankings. But that's based on computers that were operating with limited information because of the small supply of OOC games. Lucky break for us, IMO.

Just eye-balling the two conferences, what I can see is:

Pro-AAC/anti-SBC:

AAC won the H2H battle, going 3-1 vs the SBC

AAC had better record vs G5 ..... 6-4 compared to 9-8

Pro-SBC/anti-AAC:

SBC had a better bowl record, 4-1 compared to 1-5

SBC had better record vs FBS ...... 15-15 compared to 9-12

SBC had better record vs P5 ........ 3-1 compared to 1-4

To me, the SBC record was better overall. I would easily take their results over the AAC's if I could. But that's MO.